Garden Revolution

“This beautiful book shows us that guiding natural processes rather than fighting them is the key to creating healthier landscapes and happier gardeners. An essential addition to our knowledge of sustainable landscapes.” – DOUG TALLAMY

“A large part of what I advocate is the shedding of conventional gardening’s counter-productive practices. The ways in which gardeners till and weed, irrigate, and fertilize their plots, for example, cause perpetual disturbance to the ecologies of those areas and create an irresistible invitation to invasive species. And the ways we were taught to combat those invaders ensure that the struggle will never end. Unfortunately, though perhaps not surprisingly, many of these counter-productive practices have been perpetuated by the more recent schools of “natural gardening” that, though they have an admirable emphasis on the use of native species, still commonly arrange and maintain plantings in a conventional way.”   – Larry Weaner

DON'Ts: COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE PRACTICES OF TRADITIONAL HORTICULTURE

• Eliminate weeds by pulling them out, roots and all

Disturbing soil in this fashion only creates opportunities for more weed invasion and promotes germination of dormant weed seeds. The garden ecologist cuts weeds off at the base, repeating as necessary so that native neighbors can crowd them out.

• Fertilize and irrigate to give a boost to established plantings

If you have chosen plants that are adapted to the soil and site, once rooted, the plantings won’t need such artificial assistance (except perhaps in the rare case of an extreme and prolonged drought).

• Amend soil before planting by deep digging and adding organic matter, topsoil, and fertilizers

The truth is that it’s far smarter to plant species that are adapted to the existing character of your soil. This sort of “one size fits all” soil preparation recommended by traditional horticulture is not only labor and resource intensive, it creates a situation that promotes virtually every kind of weed.

• The beauty of the garden depends on prolonging the life of desirable plants by any means available

Trying to keep garden plantings static not only involves a great deal of work, it works against the health and interest of the garden. In the natural landscape, plants are constantly dying, often with new species replacing the old in a developmental process called ecological succession. Letting the plant community evolve in this manner means that the garden never grows boring but is constantly exhibiting new forms of beauty.

DO: SELECTING THE PLANT COMMUNITY

• Fill the ecological niches in space and time

Different plants within a community specialize to fill different physical niches with their belowground and aboveground growth. In a stable community all such niches are filled. You must make sure to do the same in the landscape you are creating. The more spaces you leave unoccupied, the more opportunity there is for weeds.

• Include nitrogen fixers

Members of the bean family (legumes) play an essential role in many plant communities. Working in concert with bacteria that live in nodules on their roots, nitrogen fixers have the ability to take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into a form that can be used by plants. Nitrogen is the nutrient that plants use in the greatest quantity. If the appropriate species are intermingled throughout a community, the nitrogen brought into the soil environment by the legumes will be the optimal amount for the health of the system.

• Create a dense ground layer

Dealing with weeds is by far the most time-consuming aspect of landscape maintenance. But if you smother them with well-adapted, vigorous groundcovers, there will be no need for fabrics, grub hoes, and mulches to fight off weed invasion. Broad seas of mulch, a too common feature of contemporary North American landscapes, are an invitation to trouble.

• Include plants with multiple reproductive strategies

Seed dispersal by gravity, seed dispersal by wind, seed dispersal by small mammals and birds, rhizomatous plants, stoloniferous plants. A traditional gardener’s definition of success is when a plant survives, but an ecologist doesn’t view that plant as a success unless it also reproduces.

• Accommodate wildlife

A plant community does not function in isolation: it is the interactions with wildlife that turn it into an ecosystem. Look for plants that host many species of caterpillars and other herbaceous insects. Birds depend on insects to feed their young.

• Arrange plants synergistically

Assembling the planting list is like putting together a guest list for a dinner party: we must figure out who should sit next to whom to create the best experience for all concerned.

Nitrogen Fixers

Fabaceae Family (Legumes)